Surface coatings specialist Carbodeon has released a new PTFE/NanoDiamond coating with twice the durability and up to 66 percent less friction than current products. The new coating has the potential to cost-effectively reduce CO2 output and fuel demand, as well as to improve equipment lifespan, in fields such as the automotive, aerospace and industrial machinery industries.

NanoDiamond particles are hardwearing, small, and offer very low surface friction. Carbodeon has developed a liquid dispersion of 4-6 nm NanoDiamond particles with surface chemistry that has been specially created to integrate the particles with PTFE molecules without the use of additional surfactants. The new dispersion, called uDiamond Vox D, is the latest addition to Carbodeon’s range of NanoDiamond materials.

The improvements in durability and friction come in part because of the properties of the diamond material that the particles are composed of, but equally important are the changes to the overall coating structure caused by the presence of the particles themselves. The use of hard particles to improve the durability of coatings is well known, but the combination of small size and surface functionalization in the uDiamond Vox D coating means that Carbodeon’s particles are interfaced with PTFE molecules in a fundamentally different way.